Moles run in the female line in my family. My grandmother (my mother’s mother) had a rather large mole on the left-hand side of the back of her neck, just about at the hair line. So does my mother, in exactly the same spot. Me? I have thousands, not to say millions of moles, all over, mostly pretty small. I have, however, also inherited the family mole, except in my case it has decided to move to a better vantage point. It’s in the back of my head, towards the crown, in the exact spot you would aim for if you came from behind with a baseball bat on a downward stroke (please don’t). Odd that.

Voices in my head: the Muppets – doing the Muppet Show theme tune

This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

1. You’ve been given the chance to go back to a point in your life and change a single decision you made; you’ll lose everything that happened since then, but you’ll get to live in the shiny new parallel timeline that develops. Would you? What would you change? And would you want to keep the memory of this timeline, too?

I wouldn’t, I don’t think. A whole new set of difficult decisions to deal with? Thanks, but no thanks. Besides, I can’t think of any single decision I’ve made that I would like to change. I mean, there are several situations I’d have liked to handle differently – a couple of boyfriend snafus that lost me good friends – and a fair few choices where, in retrospect, it’s obvious I made the wrong decisions – I wish I’d done French at IB, for example – but not one, single, momentous, life-changing decision that “went all wrong” – and surely that would have to be the point? I’m pretty happy with my life most of the time.

2. If you could legally sell your vote in the next Presidential election — hand someone a signed, blank ballot in exchange for money — would you do it? And what price would you ask?

No. Not that I have a vote in the next presidental election (though I wish I had, the last one wasn’t exactly a great success and maybe my vote would help), but assuming the question to also mean “in the next general election”, my answer is no. Definitely not.

3. What one object you own has the most sentimental value to you?

I’m having a hard time coming up with something here. I have lots of stuff that has sentimental value (I have lots of stuff – period), and a few things that I keep only for their sentimental value, but not very much that I would be devastated to lose. The things I would be devastated to lose are the things that are irreplaceable – slides and negatives, drawings, paintings, old letters, that sort of thing.

Huh? My coffee tastes of toffee. Why? Have my tastebuds suddenly gone dyslectic? Has someone added toffee flavour to the instant coffee? Is it an echo of last night’s tasting (Clontarf, was it?)? Or am I just going mad?

The latter seems likely.

Voices in my head: Atomic Kitten (sadly) singing The Tide is High

This is my new blogchalk:
Norway, Oslo, Norwegian, English, Robin, Female, 26-30, books.

Yesterday, I was told with great assurance that I am an angel. A little later I was chasticised for “floating” while doing the kata at karate practice.

Got to remember to keep those wings furled.

The urge to call him up, or better yet, just turn up at his doorstep asking for a hug, is almost overwhelming. It would be an unspeakably bad idea considering my continued state of indecision. So. Almost overwhelming. Will concentrate on doing useful tasks instead. Such as paying a couple of bills and updating the NMWL members list.

Then go to bed and hope for a friendly dream.

Voice on the stereo: Poor Rich Ones – Happy happy happy

You may be blithely uninterested, but here’s a report anyway.

Easter was good. Friday night (11th) was my birthday party at The Dubliner, and a lot of people showed up and it was very, very nice to see everyone. We did indeed end up going back to my place at the end, which was also very nice. I threw the remains of the party out at some point, I’m all in favour of late conversations but I’m also rather in favour of just a little sleep. As expected I woke up ridiculously early on Saturday, before eight, I think. However, I messed about the flat for a bit (washed the glasses from the night before and such) so by the time I got out it was almost lunchtime. Stopped by the library and met Linda there and we went for a wander and had lunch at Bagel & Juice. Saturday night? Uhm. Oh, that’s right, I already told you. I got restless and ended up drinking whisky at Bar & Cigar.

Sunday. I can’t remember what I did Sunday. Must have done something.

Monday I picked up Jane at the airport and we went rambling round town, doing a little bit of shopping. We then went down to the harbour and enjoyed the sunshine, and walked around Akershus Festning to end up at The Dubliner for dinner (and cider). V.g.

Tuesday, weather was still holding up and we decided to be tourists proper and took the ferry across to Bygdøy and saw the Viking ships (yes, actual viking ships, not just reproductions, kinda cool, huh?), Ra II and Kon Tiki and Nansen’s Fram. Following that we went home and made Meg’s Toucan Lasagne in preparation for the evening. Pia, Martin and Theresa&hubby turned up to eat it and to play the US version of TP. The guys won (we were playing teams of two), which must surely have been some mistake, but the company was good, so we didn’t really care.

Wednesday, Jane and I popped into town to do some last-minute shopping and then caught a ride with Martin up to Elverum (the poor boy was driving all the way to Trondheim and then “two hours left”), where we met up with my parents and drove to my grandparent’s.

Here followed a couple of days of way too much fresh air, sun and excercise (we went for walks and Jane took lots of pictures of hills, trees and snow, all novelties to her – I could contain my enthusiasm, though I had to admit it was pretty and that I probably shouldn’t be taking it for granted). The mandatory trip to Sweden on the Thursday meant I could stock up on a little Strongbow and I bought a fridge magnet: “Du får röra dammet, men var vänlig skriv inte i det.” (You may touch the dust, but please don’t write in it.) In Torsby we met Linda briefly to do a quick exchange of birthday presents, and lo and behold, she gave me another fridge magnet: “Inget går upp mot en god vän, undantaget en god vän med choklad.” (Nothing can compete with a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate.) Saturday was family party time, as my grandmother’s 80th birthday was Monday, lots of great aunts and uncles to deal with and, though very nice in its way, quite tiring.

On my insistence, we set off quite early on Sunday, Jane and I caught the bus back to Oslo from Elverum and manged to go for a walk in the evening which ended up in The Churchill. However, we still managed to get out and about for the planned walk from Maridalsvannet along Akerselva the next day. And now my shoulders are red. And in the evening I saw Jane off, as already recounted.

Og alle var enige om at det hadde vært en fin tur.

Voice on the stereo: Marli from The Fame Academy singing The Track of my Tears (yay, Fame Academy CD in the mailbox today from amazon)

The this or that “what is” edition:

1. Yummier: Chocolate ice cream or strawberry cheesecake?
Chocolate ice cream. Mmmm. Chocolate… (I can hear Homer Simpson going “Donuts” in my head when I say that. I am putting the exact same sentiment into the word chocolate.)

2. Better to watch on TV: Movies or sports?
Ah. Now. Let me see. Sports. I’ve heard of those. You mean you can watch them on tv? Without committing hara kiri out of utter boredom? I must say the thought had not occurred to me. Movies, ok? My answer is Movies.

3. A better web browser: MSIE or Netscape (or tell us your own favorite!)
I used to be a big Netscape fan. Now, for some reason, I seem to be using IE almost exclusively. Why? I have no clue. It’s not as if I think it’s any better, and I still hate Microsoft.

4. A better way to travel: Automobile or bus/train?
I don’t care as long as I don’t have to drive. On principle I’m in favour of bus/train as being more environmetally friendly, but I love riding in cars.

5. Your preferred camera: Digital or film?
Film. Slide film. I would rather like a proper digital camera, though, preferably an SLR that would go with the lenses I already have.

6. A Cooler Vehicle: Motorcycle or sports car?
It depends a bit on what sports car and who’s driving it (seeing as I don’t want to). I’d quite like an old MG and the right person to drive me around in it, but on the whole I’d go with motorcycle.

7. More fun: Video games or board games?
Trivial pursuit! So: board games.

8. Sexier: A perfect body or an intelligent mind?
Whose definition of perfect? The intelligent mind may need an acceptable body (minimum height, minimum – and maximum – weight, reasonably broad shoulders, nice eyes, uhm, I think that’s the easily definable ones) to go with it, but a perfect body (even if it’s to my own definition of perfect) in no way compensates for a pea-brain. I guess that answers your question?

9. A stinkier smell: Skunk or gasoline (petrol)?
Skunk. Petrol smells kinda nice.

10. Thought-provoking question of the week: What is more important to you: making a ton of money and being at the top of your field, or finding your soulmate and living a comfortable but not wealthy life?
The latter. Could he make himself apparent soon, please?

Whohoo! Going to Stockholm! Me and two of the girls from work are going on a girlie-weekend-out in May!

I’m in a very travelly mood at the moment. It must be because I saw Jane off at the airport yesterday and seeing people off at the airport just seems unnatural. Picking people up is ok, because you then have the visit to look forward to, but seeing people off – watching the other person going through security and having to turn back and go home to an empty flat makes me feel profoundly restless. On the way back home I started thinking “I wonder if I could gatecrash the Whisky Society group going to the Speyside Festival next week?” Unfortunately, the answer is no. No tickets to any of the arrangements, no room at the inn, and I don’t even want to know what the flights would have cost at this short a notice… Bugger. Besides, I have a meeting on the Monday/Tuesday which I know at least one person would be livid if I missed (“Look, ok, I know we really need this meeting and that it’s been put off several times, but I really just have to go to Scotland to drink whisky, ok?”) So, plan B. Stockholm. We’d been talking about it for a while, but I raised the subject again and we actually got the tickets booked (Ryanair, 1500 kroner for the lot of us, how do they do it?).

Which is good. I still want to go to Scotland, though. AND next week is May Day week, so I could take the Friday off and have a long weekend. And I do have quite a lot of frequent flyer points available, enough to get me to Great Britain. I wonder if Andreas is around? I wonder if the nice people at SAS can get me a points flight for that weekend? I suppose it is unlikely. Will have to check, though. Want to travel. The other option is trying to get a flight to Bergen, which would be very sensible as I need to finish a costume for my honourary nephew and doing a bit of measuring and fitting might not be a bad idea. Sensible and good, I’d get to see Janne and Konrad and Stian and my brother (though I just saw him I could do with seeing him again). But I want to go to Scotland. I’m going to start pouting in a minute.

The essential difference. Bah. Humbug. Or maybe not. Anyway, according to the Guardian my EQ score is 51, which is pretty much as expected, I guess. However, my SQ is 70, and I quote:

51-80 = You have a very high ability for analysing and exploring a system. On average women score about 24 and men score about 30. Three times as many people with Asberger Syndrome score in this range, compared to typical men, and almost no women score this high.

(Via CrincleCutz, where you can also find a definition of Asberger Syndrome.) Right. Ok, now I’m curious. How do you score? I suppose my EQ makes up for the potentially asocial aspects of AS, but still.